Chapters

Kyurem Strikes!!

Brace Yourself, Keldeo!!

Differences between the anime and the manga

In the movie, the story begins with Keldeo training with the Swords of Justice and eventually disobeying them to battle Kyurem, followed by the Swords of Justice appearing and getting frozen, after which Keldeo runs away. In the manga, however, the battle is already underway when the storytelling begins, and the events preceding it are revealed when Keldeo explains what happened to him to Ash and his friends.

Also, Keldeo's training battles are acknowledged only by a single compilation frame, while in the movie it forms a notable part of the movie's beginning. Due to this, also the time when Keldeo first tries and fails to use its sword, is before the training battles, instead of during Keldeo's battle with Virizion, like in the movie.

In the movie, Kyurem froze the Swords of Justice when they were trying to stop Kyurem from hurting Keldeo. In the manga, the scene is slightly changed, having the Swords of Justice actually stepping in the middle of the battle scene to protect Keldeo, and getting frozen at the battlefield, because dodging Kyurem's attack would've led to Keldeo's freezing.

The scene where Ash and his friends are buying the Darumaka Box Lunches is a lot shorter in the manga than in the movie, not containing the part of the lunch boxes falling over and Ash and the Pokémon having to catch them before they fell.

The part of Ash's Scraggy almost missing the train is cut out of the manga.

In fact, almost all of the appearances of Ash and his friends' Pokémon other than Pikachu and Axew are left out of the manga version.

When Ash and his friends find Keldeo, it kicks Ash in scare, causing Ash to bump into Iris almost causing her to fall off the train. In the manga, Keldeo's kick only causes Ash to fall over, leaving him questioning of why did Keldeo do that.

When Kyurem lands on the train in the movie, its presence causes the roof of the train to freeze. It then attacks Ash, his friends, and Keldeo, who duck into an empty cart dodge. When Kyurem prepares for another attack, it suddenly notices a tunnel up ahead, and is forced to jump off the train. In the manga, Kyurem's presence doesn't cause the train's roof to freeze, and neither it leaves the train on its free will; instead, before it can attack again, Ash has Pikachu use Thunderbolt on it, making Kyurem leap into the air in order to dodge, after which the tunnel appears, and it knocks the airborne Kyurem down and into a water nearby.

Interestingly enough, the manga's version of events would work as the better explanation of why Kyurem emerges from the sea later in the story; a scene which occurs in the movie as well.

In the movie, Ash and his friends start eating their box lunches before leaving to help Keldeo save the Swords of Justice, and Ash is shown telling Keldeo to dig in as well. Afterwards, they are attacked by Kyurem and a group of Cryogonal. In the manga, the feeding scene is cut shorter, and Kyurem and the Cryogonal attack Ash and his friends while they are still eating, instead of after it.

In the movie, Ash and Pikachu hang on to Keldeo as it uses Hydro Pump to carry them away from the attacking Cryogonal. In the manga, Keldeo uses Hydro Pump as an offensive move against the Cryogonal, instead of as a mean of escape.

The battle against the Cryogonal is shortened in the manga, and for example the part where Ash uses his Boldore to skate across the ice is left out of the manga completely.

In the movie, Keldeo helps Cilan in opening the door to the subway trails, and is about to do the same with the second door, before Iris interrupts and shows that this door was unlocked. In the manga, both doors open without a problem.

In the movie, when the Cryogonal are chasing Cilan's electric cart, Cilan uses his Crustle to attack them, after which the cart is frozen over and stopped by Kyurem, whose roar shatters the cart's frozen wind shield, forcing Cilan to reveal that he and his Pokémon are the only ones riding the cart. In the manga version, this scene is shortened; Cilan's Crustle doesn't appear and Cilan stops the cart when one of the Cryogonal uses Ice Beam to form a huge block of ice on his the path, after which he steps off the cart and reveals the Cryogonal that he's alone. Kyurem is then seen flying over him, not touching the ground at any point.

After leaving Cilan's cart, Kyurem changes from Black Kyurem into White Kyurem in the movie. This doesn't occur in the manga version.

There is short scene in the movie showing Iris approaching Cilan in the blimp she was using, revealing that she was okay. This scene wasn't shown in the manga.

While Ash and his Pokémon are trying to free the Swords of Justice from ice, Kyurem tells him to leave and launches a blast of cold air at them. They, however, ignore it and continue. In the manga, even though Ash refuses to give in, he still temporarily stops his freeing attempt, recalls his Boldore and Pignite, and hugs Pikachu to protect them from the coldness.

When Kyurem tells Keldeo to pass through the gate again, it originally hesitates to move, until Ash encourages it to do it. In the manga, Keldeo takes a few steps before stopping to doubt itself.

During the battle between Keldeo and Kyurem, one of Keldeo's hooves is frozen, and Ash tries to make Kyurem stop by having Pikachu attack it, which Keldeo interrupts with a weak Focus Blast, telling him to stay away from the fight. This part of the battle was left out of the manga version.

In the movie, after the battle has ended, Full Court starts collapsing for all the damage it took during the battle, only to be stopped by White Kyurem freezing it solid. The collapse didn't occur in the manga.

Keldeo doesn't revert to its Ordinary Form between its battle with Kyurem and the reciting of the oath in the manga, unlike in the movie.

The movie ends with Ash and his friends witnessing the Sword of Justice reciting their oath with Keldeo. In the manga, this scene is mostly skipped, and instead, the manga version ends with Ash and his friends flying away with the blimp seen earlier in the movie and wishing Keldeo goodbye, a scene that was seen during the movie's end credits.